The Adams family has been going to Eleuthera for over 20 years. Sometimes we skip a year, but I don't think we ever skipped more than one and we were not about to let some stupid pandemic stop us. Actually it did stop us last year and the only reason we went this year was that I booked the tickets back in the summer and they were non-refundable. I knew this virus would last a long time, but who knew Omicron would plunge us back into full panic mode again. We were a little anxious for a number of reasons. Paco our Whippet is getting old and we dreaded leaving him in the kennel for 8 days, especially since his sister died. But mostly we were worried about getting stuck down there with more lock downs being floated. However, in the end, all the testing worked out and we got our travel visas easily and were able to pull off this mini vacation with no big snafus. We landed in North Eleuthera after a direct flight from CLT and the rental car was waiting for us. A short drive down to Palmetto Point in the center of the island and we pulled into Calypso, my father's little slice of eden. What a difference two years make! The place was more lush than I ever remembered. My dad spent his first pandemic year making it look even more amazing. I wish I took more landscape pictures to show you but at least I did photograph the birds and critters for you.
Yellow-crowned Night-herons abound in the mangroves next to Woodstar, the house by the lakes.
I never noticed the calls of the Least Grebe before but they were very vocal this time.
Hammock Skipper - since I have pretty much all the birds on Eleuthera, I was more focused on Leps and Odes this time. The recent rains had many plants in bloom so the butterflies and dragons were all over.
This Faithful Beauty Moth was a real stunner. One of the nicknames is the Uncle Sam Moth due to the Red, White and Blue color scheme. I wouldn't have noticed it was a moth but for the brushy antennae.
This butterfly has the somewhat dubious name of Great Southern White. Maybe a little more racist than some of our patronymic bird names. Zoom in and check those turquoise clubs!
I put this little grass skipper into iNat to see if I can crowd source the species name. I am stumped.
Great Southern White
I am going with Cornelius Skipper on this one.
This tiny White was no bigger than my thumbnail.
Black-faced Grassquits were plentiful this trip. Perhaps my father's new grass is attracting them. He has painstakingly been transplanting a nice fluffy grass on all the lawns that is low maintenance and drought resistant. I think it only needs mowing 1 or 2 times a year.
Bahamas Woodstars were also plentiful even with no feeders up as my father has planted huge swaths of Firecracker plants which they love. This particular male commandeered this perch the whole trip and offered tons of photography opportunities.
This Cuban Pewee couldn't have been more accommodating.
I have tried over the years to photograph a Bahamas Yellowthroat but I am starting to think they are not on Eleuthera and I may have to remove an old record I have when I was not as confident a birder. The Bahamas Yellowthroat has a much larger bill than this Common Yellowthroat.
I caught this Cape May Warbler red-handed eating one of the Sugar Apples. I was able to pull off a couple for my family and they were delicious.
Some more Eleuthera action coming in the next installment.
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